Viking Age Conflict Archaeology

The Amphibious Unit of The Late Viking Age

A STUDY OF THE MILITARY CAPACITY OF THE AMPHIBIOUS UNITS WHO OPERATED IN THE ANGLO-SAXON AREAS WITHIN THE OPERATIONS OF SWEYN FORKBEARD FROM 911 TO 1013 AD

The thesis focuses on the operational and tactical level of the amphibious operations during The Late Viking Age and is based on two main research questions. The first question is which theoretical and methodical approach would be applied to a discussion of the transition of the amphibious unit from a naval to an army combat unit. The second question is how the unit was organized and how it could have conducted its landing on the beach based on the available military technology.
The overall theoretical approach of the thesis comes from the Actor Network Theory and the Symmetrical Archeology.
The model for the cycle of warfare is used to understand the relationship between the units’ procedure, organization and technological level. The empirical data of the thesis comes from an analysis of the overall capacity of the individual actor in the amphibious landing. The collective capacity is characterized according to the capacity model, which describes the overall capacity as consisting of a design capacity, functional capacity and material capacity.
The technological level of the amphibious unit consists of the weapons, the protective equipment and its transport capacity. The ship was the most essential part of the amphibious operation, and in the late Viking age the ships were specialized into two groups. The cargo ship, which mainly was driven by sail, and the personnel carrier, which could be powered by oars almost as well as by sail. The organization on board the ship was probably kept when the unit made its landing, which means that the unit would fight in three sections in two rows. This made it possible for the unit to have the most warriors ready to fight and still be able to counter the enemy and to exploit opportunities on the battlefield. The primary weapons of the unit were the shield and the spear, but axes and swords were used for close combat. To protect them self from missile weapons, the warriors made a dense formation where the shields overlapped each other. Their fast ships and their well-disciplined units made the amphibious forces of the Late Viking Age able to perform an amphibious landing which was protected by a bridgehead, within 17 minutes from the first warrior was identified.

The Viking Age is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of riches. Until recently, archaeologists and textual scholars tended to weave a male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians would not have been possiblewithout women.

This pioneering and beautifully illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The motivations and circumstances thatled women to engage in armed conflict or other activities are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from the Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields –lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.

This article addresses the depth of our knowledge regarding Viking fortifications in England, Scotland, and Wales, assessing perceptions of them as a monument type. This sudy includes the investigation of antiquarian influences upon the interpretation of these sites. It is suggested that archaeological knowledge of these monuments is largely fragmentary, and that in some cases, current understanding can in fact be based on interpretations dating back as far as the 17th or even 16th century. Additionally, it is proposed that Viking fortified sites do not exist with any form of homogeneity as a monument type. The research process of these investigations, findings, and two case studies are summarized. The article discusses the current state of knowledge regarding Viking fortifications and suggests how the study of them should proceed.

This paper is being written mainly as a genealogy, but it does also contain much valuable information as to just why such genealogies exist and/or can be reconstructed with the right knowledge of ancient texts. It is also more evidence of the existence of a royal oligarchy which had many branches, so as to cover many geographic locations and peoples. Because we find that the Viking leaders were of ancient royal ancestry, as the rest of those who were in power and either royal or of papal families, we can better understand just why they were able to do what they did and get away with it. They were, doing publicly, what their royal ancestors had been doing (and what other royals of their time were also doing) in secret (See my work on Royal Supremacy).[I] In terms of the Viking history as it was left to us, as 'Vikings', their " history " as Viking raiders began with the attack on Lindisfarne monastery in 793 CE/AD, and ended with the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 CE/AD, when the Vikings were battling the English army, and the English army had successfully repelled them. Another thing to note, is that the Vikings are credited with various things, particularly, the discovery of America. However, there is evidence that their relatives and ancestors had already known of and visited America. And that explains just how it is that they knew where it was and how to get to it, and back. Though I have not yet written much about it (see my paper 'What Claudius Ptolemy Knew'), I have been meaning to write more about ancient world travel and the evidence that there is for it.[II] There are still a lot of people who do not want to even consider that ancient people had traveled around the world.

A study of shields and their use as both defensive weapons and grave goods in Late Iron Age, rather in the Viking Age and Crusading Period in the geographical area of Modern Finland. The focus is both on archaeology and textual sources, using ancient Finnish poetry, as well as Scandinavian sagas as comparative evidence.

This is a revised/corrected version of a paper I uploaded a couple of weeks ago.  Complaints about the grammar made me delete that upload.  This version is, hopefully, corrected.  Please remember, no one can proofread their own work. Thank you.

The survey, designed and conducted as a fieldwork project for the author's MA dissertation for the University of Southampton was successful in locating a number of anomalies. These features indicate that the extent of occupation within the fort was much more than previously thought, though excavation is needed to elucidate and date them.

It is possible to gain insight into Frankish-Danish relations in Nordalbingia during the early 9th century based on archaeological excavation results and written sources. Such relations were characterised by armed conflicts, political intrigue and shifting alliances. The Frankish fortress of Esesfelth had a key function during this time of unrest. Emperor Charlemagne built it in AD 810, partly to prevent Danish supremacy over the Nordalbingian Saxon territory north of the River Elbe, and partly as a starting point for incorporating it into the Frankish realm. The fortress was an exceptional defensive structure without any known contemporary parallels. As the centre of Frankish administration in Nordalbingia Esesfelth became the target of an attack by combined Danish and Slavic (Obodrite) forces in AD 817. To some extent, the attack can be reconstructed by interpreting excavation results, and simulated with the aid of military theory. The results also present an excellent opportunity...

Archaeologists have been interested in Hollywood films for a number of decades. Initially, their attention was focused on cinema’s misperception of the practice of archaeology and the subject under study (the past). Every film is, to use a Hegelian distinction, a story in itself, presenting a  more or less coherent story. At the same time, each film is for itself: a meta-film (meta-story) which reflects on and encapsulates the context within which it was made. In this paper these two levels of cinema are scrutinised in relation to How to Train Your Dragon (2010), an animation about Vikings and dragons. The paper aims to show how the (imaginable) past is used to both mask and stage tensions of contemporary politics.

The presentation traces the recent establishment and development of the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES). Having arisen initially out of the kindred, though largely distinct, scholarly discourses of ecocriticism and environmental history, the network soon developed a model of cross-cutting research cooperation spanning a wider and more heterogeneous constellation of subject areas, scholarly discourses and scientific domains. Responding to a widely perceived need for a more fully interdisciplinary field of environmental studies in the humanities, NIES has also become a meaningful vehicle for the organization of the environmental humanities in Northern Europe (the Nordic countries in particular). The network offers one noteworthy model for the further development of this emergent field in its emphasis on project-driven and increasingly team-organized collaborative research, as well as in its ambitions to promote the equitable engagement of scholars from the arts and humanities together with scientists from the social sciences and the natural sciences in the production of new knowledge pertaining to environment and society.  NIES’s distinctly integrative form of engagement in new initiatives of research, education and public outreach has been described, perhaps most aptly, as a _post-disciplinary_ approach to environmental studies.

""Archaeological and archaeo-metallurgical examinations on a Carolingian winged lance from the Längsee in Carinthia/Austria

Around 1987 the head of a winged lance was recovered from the Längsee in Carinthia which was now examined archaeologically and archaeo-metallurically. It is an extremely well preserved elaborate composite head with pattern welding. Typologically it is identified as a developed winged lance and can be dated to the second half of the 8th century. It was probably used in a military context; however there are also indications for the use as a banner-lance. The question of origin – import or local – must remain open at the time being. The place of discovery in stagnant water can possibly be explained with a ritual motive. In general, the lance fits well into the typical pattern of equipment of Carantania – Frankish weapons in combination with Avar costume. M. S.

Recherches archéologiques et archéométallurgiques sur une pointe de lance à ailettes carolingienne du Langsee en Carinthie/Autriche

Une pointe de lance à ailettes a pu être découverte dans le Langsee en Carinthie autour de 1987 et a aujourd’hui été analysée archéologiquement et métallographiquement. Elle est composée de plusieurs pièces et très finement travaillée, damassée et extrêmement bien conservée. D’un point de vue typochronologique, elle peut être identifiée à une lance à ailettes évoluée de la deuxième moitié du 8e s. Son usage était certainement militaire, il y a toutefois des indices d’une utilisation en tant que lance/bannière. La question de son origine – importée ou locale – doit pour l’instant rester ouverte. Le lieu de découverte, en eaux stagnantes, peut s’expliquer peut-être par un contexte cultuel. Dans l’ensemble, la lance s’insère bien dans l’équipement typique de Carantanie – armes franques combinées à un costume avare. L. B.""

'Battle' is a word often associated with the Viking Age in England and there are numerous references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles to the conflict that took place as the Anglo-Saxons fought to keep Viking incursions at bay. There is no doubt that hostile encounters between the two sides were violent and bloody, with the Anglo-Saxons fighting to hold on to territories that were now not only under threat from other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, but also from 'heathens' and foreign enemies who were set on conquering England for their own. These battles were to take place for over two and a half centuries from the first recorded raid at Lindisfarne, Northumbria, in 793 until the famous Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

Archaeology as a discipline knows relatively little of how these people fought each other for possession of English soil and wealth. There are numerous contemporary references to battles in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but these state little more than there being a 'great slaughter' at a certain location, with the victor occasionally being named. We are not sure of the size of the battles both in terms of area and the number of combatants, nor are we sure of the tactics used.

This article will attempt to construct a theoretical model for Viking Age battlefields, utilising a synthesised approach of literary and historical evidence alongside archaeology from a number of different time periods, including prehistory. The study of the Early Medieval period and the Viking Age cannot be undertaken simply from a historical, literary or archaeological viewpoint, but a combined approach has the potential to allow a much more comprehensive view of warfare in the period.

"The conquest and settlement of lands in eastern England by Scandinavians represents an extreme migratory episode. The cultural interaction involved one group forcing themselves upon another from a position of military and political power. Despite this seemingly dominant position, by 900 CE the immigrants appear to have largely adopted the culture of the Anglo-Saxons whom they had recently defeated. Informed by migration theory, this work proposes that a major factor in this assimilation was the emigration point of the Scandinavians and the cultural experiences which they brought with them.

Although some of the Scandinavians may have emigrated directly from Scandinavia, most of the first generation of settlers apparently commenced their journey in either Ireland or northern Francia, particularly Frisia. Consequently, it is the culture of Scandinavians in these regions that needs to be assessed in searching for the cultural impact of Scandinavians upon eastern England. This may help to explain how the immigrants adapted to aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture, such as the issuing of coinage and at least public displays of Christianity, relatively quickly. The geographic origins of the Scandinavians also explain some of the innovations introduced by the migrants, including the use of client kings and the creation of ‘buffer’ states.

"

Various types of evidence have been used in the search for Norse migrants to eastern England in the latter ninth century. Most of the data gives the impression that Norse females were far outnumbered by males. But using burials that are most certainly Norse and that have also been sexed osteologically provides very different results for the ratio of male to female Norse migrants. Indeed, it suggests that female migration may have been as significant as male, and that Norse women were in England from the earliest stages of the migration, including during the campaigning period from 865. Determining the ratio of Norse women to men in England during the period of early settlement up to 900 ad has always been extremely difficult. 1 There is written evidence attesting the presence of women and children with the Norse army that attacked Wessex and western Mercia in the 890s, but no mention of women and children accompanying the army that campaigned from 865 to 878 and succeeded in conquering a Norse settlement zone in eastern England. There is some archaeological evidence for early Norse female settlement, most obviously oval brooches, but this evidence is minimal. The more difficult to date evidence of place names, personal names, and DNA samples derived from the modern population suggests that Norse women did migrate to England at some stage, but probably in far fewer numbers than Norse men. Following the discovery of Norse female burials at Cumwhitton, Cumbria, and Adwickle-Street, South Yorkshire, Judith Jesch noted in 2008 that there remain 'great gaps in our knowledge about the extent to which such women accompanied the Viking settlers', and this situation has not markedly 1 This article deals only with biological sex, rather than gender. 'Norse' is used in the sense of someone likely to be speaking Old Norse, regardless of the region from which they emigrated to England.

Various types of evidence have been used in the search for Norse migrants to eastern England in the latter ninth century. Most of the data gives the impression that Norse females were far outnumbered by males. But using burials that are most certainly Norse and that have also been sexed osteologically provides very different results for the ratio of male to female Norse migrants. Indeed, it suggests that female migration may have been as significant as male, and that Norse women were in England from the earliest stages of the migration, including during the campaigning period from 865.

The abundance of the references to the past in the present causes some theoretical problems. In other words, usually analysing different manifestations of the past in e.g. computers games, Hollywood films and so on to much attention is paid only on content (what is presented). Formal aspects of each film, computer game and so on are omitted. I want to explore this problem a little bit in this short text by taking as an example a historical re-enactment movement of the Viking Age.